Talent on Trial

 Warmer weather has greeted the team at Pfieffer Racing with gentle mornings and spectacular sunrises softening the harshness of winter that has plagued the early starts.

After a quiet week of generic routines and fresh 2YO educational outings, Pfieffer will enter the final week of August with a host of runners competing from Goulburn to Eagle Farm.

Pfieffer has found plenty of races to suit his charges at Goulburn of late, and will again send two horses in pursuit of the first winner for the new season. The first to fire in the 1600m maiden on Thursday is Eyelash, a filly on an upward trajectory and having just her third start with Bobby El-Issa set to take the ride.

“She’s a nice, neat type of filly who like many of the (sire) Dane Shadow’s will improve with racing and distance” Pfieffer said.

“She is looking for the mile now and with Bobby (El-Issa) on board she should be fit enough, and have her chance to get into the finish at this grade”.

Also heading to the mile is the flashy Brilliant Meteor, a talented yet enigmatic gelding who is yet to reproduce his winning form of previous campaigns. Despite a host of setbacks with poor tracks and unsuitable tempos, the son of Northern Meteor has been a source of disappointment of late with lacklustre finishes tarnishing his otherwise useful record.

“I’m stepping him back to the mile and being down in grade a bit may provide the key to getting him back to form”.

Saturday will see the Pfieffer float venture to Hawkesbury with Immortal Miss and Who’s A Star engaged in the 1500m class 1 and 1400m maiden races respectively.

Immortal Miss, a carbon copy of her famous sire Sebring in looks but yet to fully reach her potential, will be aiming to capitalise on her improved effort at Kembla Grange last start when third behind Godolphin’s talented young galloper in Retaliation.

Who’s A Star will have an excited bunch of owners should he salute on Saturday, with an “all girls” syndicate in partnership in the son of Star Witness. The connections of the young gelding will be igniting the winning owner’s room should Who’s A Star deliver on his “solid work” over the past two weeks.

Heading back to Eagle Farm is the talented sprinter Ziggy Willie, who is engaged in a 1200m race for horses without a metropolitan win. A close third at the same track and distance last start when coming off a hot pace to nail Man Of His Word on the wire, Ziggy Willie will again be partnered by Michael Cahill for Saturday’s assignment.

To cap off an exciting fortnight for the team, the star filly Denmagic will begin her highly anticipated spring campaign with a trial at Rosehill at 9am on Tuesday morning. The Queensland and Hawkesbury Guineas runner-up will trial with the handy Hawkes speedster Our Boy Malachi and her nemesis from Eagle Farm in Tsaritsa.

“I’m really happy with the way Denmagic has come back as a fully-furnished 4YO now” said Pfieffer.

“She just kept stepping up to the challenge last campaign and was strong over a long preparation which showed just how tough she is, even in group company”.

Kept for the Rosehill trials after originally being set to trial at Warwick Farm last Friday, Denmagic avoided an unsuitable hit out on the testing Pro-Ride circuit at headquarters in favour of a better surface at Rosehill.

“I didn’t want her to have a hard trial first up on the Pro-Ride when she could instead wait till Tuesday. We want to have her spot on for the good mares stakes races this spring and I know she is well up to the task”.